Friday, 7 November 2008

Sunday, 21 September 2008

Tony Blair in the Daily Show video defends the Iraq war and forgets that the Iraqi government the US and UK are supporting is the one with the Iranian-backed militias! Maybe it is just too embarrassing?

Friday, 19 September 2008

Dramatic just-released video showing British citizens and Palestinian fishermen being terrified by machine gun fire close to their boats from the Israeli navy two weeks ago . You can hear the terrified shouts of former Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife's sister Lauren Bo. The shots are seen going into the sea close to their boat.

The footage, taken on September 6th 2008 by Scot Andrew Muncie, shows an Israeli gunboat engaging unarmed fishing boats, shooting close to their hulls, while international observers hold their arms in the air and scream for them to stop firing. These were an 81-year-old nun, an 84-year-old holocaust survivor and Cherie Blair’s sister, Lauren Bo.

After many shots fired at close range ahead and astern of the fishing boats and into the sea between them, narrowly missing them, the firing ceased. The firing is clearly highly dangerous - but this time no one was injured. Palestinian fishermen claim 14 colleagues have died in similar incidents since June 2007.

Muncie, 34, of Dalbreagha, Spean Bridge, with Lauren Bo and the other international observers, arrived in Gaza last month on two boats from Cyprus that breached Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

Tuesday, 16 September 2008

Most of us had never heard of South Ossetia - so when war suddenly broke out there as the Olympics started, many of us were dashing to our atlases - or looking it up on Google Maps. Since then the American press has judged that is was a totally unjustified Russian attack on a small democratic neighbor, Georgia - and as such to be absolutely condemned. Russia was clearly back to her Soviet days. It was another invasion like that of Hungary in 1968 - or so we were told. (photos - the troops in group photo are reported to be American trainers - with them training in explosives in the next photo - the last is a South Ossetian improvised hospital in basement during during Georgian attack)

The Russians claim their attack was justified because mass slaughter had just taken place in South Ossetia at the hands of the Georgians. They said it seemed 1400 people had been slaughtered by the Georgian government - but the US-based Human Rights Watch said it was nearer 100. So - just what had happened?

Here is what i have managed to find out. There was a different slant taken on the conflict in Europe.

The first video is a BBC report on the situation -http://ru.youtube.com/watch?v=p-U-WAzuBKA

And here is a report by an American eye-witness

Now for the basic facts as far as I can establish them

Ossetia historically has been different from Georgia. They were absorbed into the Russian empire at different times. The people are ethnically different. The Ossetians live both north and south of the Caucasian Mountains which run from the shores of the Black Sea east towards the Ural mountains. The Georgians live in the large valley to the south of these mountains.

In Soviet times, Stalin, a son of Georgia, placed the Ossetians living south of these mountains under the administrative control of the Georgians. These South Ossetians did not like this - but they were given an autonomous zone as an ethnic minority and in practice it did not matter where one lived within the Soviet Union.

But when the Soviet Union was abolished by the Russians and Georgia decided to go independent, the South Ossetians refused to follow. They prized their autonomy - and wanted to remain in close relationship with the rest of their people living in North Ossetia inside Russia. When the Georgians tried to enforce their control over them, these people fiercely resisted. Hundreds died. A peace deal was eventually agreed. South Ossetia regained its autonomous status, It had self-rule - but formally stayed within Georgia. Georgian and Russian troops were deployed as peace keepers along its border. In most practical senses it had gained its independence from Georgia - but formally it remained part of Georgia.

So things remained for some years. There was often tensions between the two sides - but Georgians would flock to the markets in South Ossetia where prices were cheaper. The peace keepers, mostly Russians, stayed in place.

Then the current president was elected in Georgia - and he vowed to regain total control over South Ossetia. He started by closing down Georgian access the Ossetian markets. These people, only numbering 70,000 to 80,000, began to again fear war. The Georgians vastly outnumbered them. Skirmishes occured along their borders. Georgian spy drones were shot down.

Georgia over the past three years has heavily increased its military spending - from around $30 million a year to one billion dollars. The country has been gaining a good income from an oil pipeline built by a British oil company, BP, but with significant Israeli investment. The US has also poured funds in. Israeli sources report that around one thousand privately contracted military advisors were sent from Israel to Georgia to train its army and improve its weaponry. Along with this came imports of Israeli and US military equipment - and about 100 American military advisors.

The Georgian Defense Minister reportedly speaks Hebrew. The alliance became very close. It was reported that Georgia had agreed to allow Israel the use of two military airfields if Israel decided to attack Iranian nuclear facilities. These would greatly shorten the route the Israeli strike would have to take -and make it much harder for Iran to stop it.

What is called the "Silk Route" strategy was also in play. The oil pipe line laid across Georgia takes Central Asian petroleum to a Turkish Mediterranean sea port from which the Israelis were planning to pipe underwater some to Israel and across to an Israeli port on the Red Sea from which it could be supplied to Asia. The US neo-con plan is to militarize this route via Georgia to the Caspian and its oil - with alliances to protect it and massive supplies of armaments. The new alliance is known as GUAM.

This 'silk route' runs right along Russia's southern borders and would give NATO and the US enormous advantages. It was hoped that it would take the riches of this very important, very oil-rich former Soviet region away from Russia, seriously limiting Russia's economic potential, while greatly enhancing the West's control over oil.

Georgia is practically essential if oil is to be got to the Mediterranean while avoiding Russia.

'The logical routes to take oil to Asia are via the pipeline now being built across China to the Caspian and also a pipe line to the Persian Gulf across Iran would be highly logical and economic. But the latter is the one the West does not want and are actively blocking.

The Recent War

It was planned by Georgia as a surprise strike against the capital of South Ossetia to begin at the moment when everyone was watching the start of the Olympics.

It was immediately preceeded by a meeting of the GUAM military alliance in Georgia in early July - then by a Russian military exercise near Georgia but inside Russia and by a military exercise involving 1,200 US troops and about 700 Georgian inside Georgia. In fact this only finished one week before the war broke out.

Interestingly, the Russians only pulled out of their two Soviet-era bases inside Georgia, as agreed with the Georgians, immediately before the US/Georgian joint military exercise.

It is inconceivable that the US and Israel did not know about this war in advance. This is also the view of Israeli military experts. They believe that Israeli advisors were with the Georgian troops during the initial attack. The Russians believe that Americans also were - producing an American passport dropped in a building captures by the Georgians inside S. Ossetia. American ration packs were also found.

The Start of the War.

Just a few hours before it started, the Georgian president announced the offer of a peace deal with the South Ossetians. This now seems to have been merely a ploy.

The Georgian forces at the same time assembled around the Georgian city of Gori close to the South Ossetian border. Many vehicles carrying batteries of 40 Grad rockets at a time were set up in nearby fields along with other artillery. Planes were loaded with bombs.

Then suddenly they attacked. Electric power was shut off and the residential neighborhoods of the capital town of South Ossetia were targetted by the Grad Rockets. They came in through the roofs and walls. They hit cars upon the roads. Georgian tanks blasted the Russian peace-keepers base, killing many of them.

The Georgians soon claimed they had seized this town - but the Ossetians fought back with molotov cocktails against the tanks, destroying several of them. The Georgians came back. We now have mobile phone video of their tanks shooting at the houses as they drove down city roads. The water supplies were also cut off. We have many photos of the bullet scared and burnt out brick or stone walled houses. The Georgians now tried to capture the tunnel on the only major road from Russia into South Ossetia - and it was at this point that they were stopped by Russians coming out of this tunnel to the aid of the Ossetians.

The war was then swiftly ended in Ossetia - it had only lasted a few days.

However many local people managed to survive in cellars, half the population managed to flee to shelter in Russia, and the current Ossetian list of dead numbers about 320.

This video shows Tskhinval, the capital of South Ossetia and the widespread destruction. The yellow building you see at 00:42 was a University. Then it shows the building of Ossetian television that was destroyed with Georgian tanks and GRADS according to the Ossetians.

North Ossetians also rushed to help - and when they saw this devastation they set out on revenge attacks, raiding and looting the nearby town of Gori where the attack had come from. It took time for the Russians to stop this - perhaps because they too were angry at what had been done.

For them, the President of Georgia is as evil as was Saddam Husein. He was responsible for an horrific war crime. Amnesty International has repeated condemned his government for using torture. Last year in November he brutally put down the Opposition within his country.

The Russians did not try to topple him - but they lingered inside Georgia to humiliate him and to destroy the military equipment the Georgian government had assembled near to South Ossetia. The fighting would not have stopped if the Russians had not gone into Georgia - as the artillery, planes and grad rockets have a long range and could reach into the heart of Ossetia from Georgian territory.

The Russians then refused to leave until he had signed an agreement not to try to use violent means to regain control over South Ossetia. They left immediately after he signed this - it took days to get this out of him. They did not touch the oil pipeline.

Behind the scenes, the Russians, by standing up to what they regard as a ruthless attack on a civilian population planned with the assistance of Israelis and Americans, have seriously derailed the Washington and UK neocons' plans for this region. Thus the incredibly hostile reactions to the Russian action afterwards - despite the Russians having stopped an invasion. The Russians are now heroes among the Ossetians - but demonized for this in the West.

What has happened since?

Turkey stopped two major American warships from passing through the Dardanelles to come to Georgia's aid. They did this under a pre-Second World War treaty. But this was astonishing given that Turkey is in NATO.

The Caspian nations stopped pumping oil though the pipeline through Georgia - sending it instead out via a Russian pipeline. It is not known how long this is for.

In the Ukraine, a vital part of Neocon plans to closely encircle Russia and make it indefensible has come to nothing this week. Why - because Ukraine's Prime Minister was extremely unhappy with the President's plans to embrace NATO and the West and to turn the country's back on Russia. Most people in Ukraine in opinion polls now question if joining NATO is the right thing for their country - they are very unhappy with what is seen as Western bias in the policies of the President - he is now most unpopula. A more pro-Russian government is likely to be put into place.

The Caspian oil nations before all this happened had formed their own defense alliance including China and Russia - with Iran given guest status. America is not part of this - and nor is the EU.

Friday, 12 September 2008

The interview that Mike Wallace did of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 2 years ago was aired on C-Span recently, and a diligent blogger has reported on what "60 Minutes" cut out of the interview when it aired. When Wallace confronted Ahmadinejad with the "wipe Israel off the map" threats, Ahmadinejad said that "the solution is democracy" in Israel and Palestine, a suggestion that he favors a one-state solution. I agree with blogger Tom Murphy that "60"'s edits misrepresent Ahmadinejad's thrust, making him out to be far more confrontational than he is, especially after Wallace promised Ahmadinejad that he would listen to his complete answers to questions. And yes, that this amounts to "suppression of basic facts concerning Israel and the Palestinians."

Here's Murphy's data:

The text in red was edited out of the 60 Minutes broadcast:

MR. WALLACE: You are very good at filibustering. You still have not answered the question. You still have not answered the question. Israel must be wiped off the map. Why?

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: Well, don't be hasty, sir. I'm going to get to that.

MR. WALLACE: I'm not hasty.

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: I think that the Israeli government is a fabricated government and I have talked about the solution. The solution is democracy. We have said allow Palestinian people to participate in a free and fair referendum to express their views. What we are saying only serves the cause of durable peace. We want durable peace in that part of the world. A durable peace will only come about with once the views of the people are met.

So we said that allow the people of Palestine to participate in a referendum to choose their desired government, and of course, for the war to come an end as well. Why are they refusing to allow this to go ahead? Even the Palestinian administration and government which has been elected by the people is being attacked on a daily basis, and its high-ranking officials are assassinated and arrested. Yesterday, the speaker of the Palestinian parliament was arrested, elected by the people, mind you. So how long can this go on?

We believe that this problem has to be dealt with fundamentally. I believe that the American government is blindly supporting this government of occupation. It should lift its support, allow the people to participate in free and fair elections. Whatever happens let it be. We will accept and go along. The result will be as you said earlier, sir.MR. WALLACE: Look, I mean no disrespect. Let's make a deal. I will listen to your complete answers if you'll stay for all of my questions. My concern is that we might run out of time.

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: Well, you're free to ask me any questions you please, and I am hoping that I'm free to be able to say whatever is on my mind. You are free to put any question you want to me, and of course, please give me the right to respond fully to your questions to say what is on my mind.

Do you perhaps want me to say what you want me to say? Am I to understand --

MR. WALLACE: No.

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: So if that is the case, then I ask you to please be patient.

MR. WALLACE: I said I'll be very patient.

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: Maybe these are words that you don't like to hear, Mr. Wallace.

MR. WALLACE: Why? What words do I not like to hear? [the words highlighted in red and edited out of the interview]

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: Because I think that you're getting angry.

MR. WALLACE: No, I couldn't be happier for the privilege of sitting down with the president of Iran.

Posted at 10:09 PM in Iran, Israel/Palestine, Journalism, U.S. Policy in the Mideast | Permalink

Tuesday, 26 August 2008

We British are not like Americans – we would not tolerate having Israeli lobbyists standing over our politicians like happens in Washington and thus gathering power. Why – they might bias our decisions over our foreign policy!

The influence of Israel in Washington is well documented. It is exercised both through powerful overtly Jewish Washington organisations and, increasingly, through Christian Zionist organisations.

In Jerusalem two weeks ago 600 US Christians turned up to celebrate Israel’s birthday, in the name of a powerful US pro-Israeli lobbying group claiming to represent 40 million Christians and called Christians United for Israel, led by the millionaire Rev John Hagee – head of a Texas church and of a widely syndicated Christian TV station. Their organisation is modelled on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) whose conference in Washington last year drew 6,000 participants.The Christians came to insist that Israel must have the whole of Jerusalem – and, after marching down Jaffa Street waving US and Israeli flags, a hundred of them went on April 3rd to the major Israeli settlement of Ariel to have a party featuring dancing cow girls put on for them by the Ariel mayor in thanks for millions given for its ‘vast new sports and recreation centre’. Hagee declared. "I'm delighted to be in Ariel tonight, the heartland of America in Judea and Samaria,"Afterwards, at a Jerusalem rally with Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of Likud and a close friend of Hagee, they announced on April 9th further donations of $6 million to various Israeli causes The pastor declared "Turning part or all of Jerusalem over to the Palestinians would be tantamount to turning it over to the Taliban,"Its 2007 annual conference in Washington attracted more than 4,250. The conference highlight was a “surprise appearance” by Hagee-endorsed Sen. John McCain, the Republican candidate for President. His opening line was “It’s hard doing the Lord’s work in the city of Satan.” He received seven standing ovations. Barack Obama under the Israeli lobby pressure took this position ‘Nobody has suffered more than the Palestinian people from the failure of the Palestinian leadership to recognize Israel...` -Hilary Clinton went further. She is calling for `an undivided Jerusalem as Israel`s capital.` Since 2004 Obama has received $93,700 of AIPAC money, while Hillary has taken $349,073.

However, a happier note, - a day before Hagee's visit to Ariel, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest Jewish religious organisation in the United States, with over 1.5 million members, denounced Hagee and his followers for religious extremism.But nothing like this has ever happened here in the UK? Right?

The celebration at Windsor Castle of Israel’s 60th yearOn the contrary, in some ways the Zionist lobby in this country has been even more successful – not simply historically, with getting the Balfour Declaration, but particularly in very recent times.In the US there are 13 Jews in the Senate and 30 in the House of Representatives, while in the UK, where we have a Jewish community 20 times smaller, - there are many more Jewish people in Parliament, There are 18 in the House of Commons and 41 in the House of Lords –. It is the highest Jewish representation in the West, and this achievement is due in part to Tony Blair’s patronageBefore New Labour was invented, the Labour party was more sympathetic to the Palestinians. Jon Mendelsohn of the Labour Friends of Israel has explained how it changed: '"Blair has attacked the anti-Israelism that had existed in the Labour Party. Old Labour was cowboys-and-Indians politics, picking underdogs to support, but the milieu has changed. Zionism is pervasive in New Labour. It is automatic that Blair will come to Labour Friends of Israel meetings."'

One of Blair’s first acts on becoming an MP in 1983 was to join Labour Friends of Israel. But the major change only occurred after he rose to control of the Labour party. To carry out his planned policies, he needed to try to break the funding influence of the trade unions. So he needed an ally with ample funds.In 1994, a legal friend and colleague of his, Eldred Tabachnik, Q.C., the former president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, introduced him to Michael Levy, a pop music mogul and fundraiser for Jewish and Israeli causes, a member of the Jewish Agency World Board of Governors, and a trustee of the Holocaust Educational Trust. This was at a dinner party hosted by the Israeli diplomat Gideon Meir. Soon afterwards Blair was invited to Levy’s palatial home and tennis courts. According to Andrew Porter of The Business, Levy expressed his willingness “to raise large sums of money for the party” if there was a “tacit understanding that Labour would never again, while Blair was leader, be anti-Israel”.The result: Levy ran the Labour Leader’s Office Fund to finance Blair’s campaign in the 1997 General Election. Levy in effect made New Labour possible. For this he was rewarded immediately with a peerage, as were some of their other donors. Levy has described himself as “a leading international Zionist” and he has since praised Blair for his ‘solid and committed support of the State of Israel’But, Blair needed a constant source of funds if he was to reduce the influence of the unions – and, it seems, he needed to hide its source lest it be questioned.One of the better known figures at Labour Friends of Israel is David Abrahams, a Jewish property developer. The President of the Zionist Federation, Eric Moonman vouches for him: “I know David well and have travelled with him on a number of occasions.’

Abrahams took on part of the task of secretly funding New Labour. He gave more than £650,000 to the Party under four other people’s names – a move since admitted to be unlawful by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown but which has had no legal consequence.

Abrahams explains generally that he wanted to remain anonymous as he is a ‘private person.’ But he said far more to the British Jewish Chronicle. He said he gave the money to Labour secretly since he did not want ‘Jewish money’ and the Labour Party to be linked, thinking this would make people suspect there was a Jewish conspiracy.

Labour Party officials initially denied knowing about these secret methods but evidence has since emerged that Abrahams was at the time in close contact with Prime Minister Gordon Brown's election campaign adviser, Jon Mendelsohn, who also happens to be the ex-chairman of the lobby group Labour Friends of Israel.

Other Jewish members of Labour Friends of Israel kicked in money. Lord Sainsbury gave a million pounds. Levy by 2001 had raised £15 million. Thus the Israeli lobby helped Labour break the power of the trade unions, in return for reshaping the entire UK political scene in the interests of Israel.

Quite astonishingly, once they had discovered them, the press treated these secret donations with kid gloves. Very few asked what was the Israeli lobby hoping to gain from such massive donations. No one asked, as far as I am aware, if it were Tony Blair who had wanted these donations kept secret – and if so, why? Few speculated on the foreign policy implications.

As we now know Iraq was never a threat to the UK – but it was potentially to Israel. Blair told his Jewish audiences, "a stable Iraq will be good news for Israel." He also held back from doing anything to bring the fighting to an end while Israel was bombing Lebanon.

Levy became our “special envoy” to the Middle-East despite having a serous conflict of Interest. He was supposed to negotiate impartially with Palestinians and Israelis but he had acted as a fundraiser for former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak as well as lobbying for Israel in the UK. He has both a business and a house in Israel and calls himself an ‘international Zionist.’

A Labour campaign advert in the Jewish Chronicle has boasted that since 1997 a record 57 Labour MPs have visited Israel, mostly with [and funded by] Labour Friends of Israel, ‘swelling the number of MPS willing to ensure balance on the Middle East in the House of Commons. More Labour MPs have visited Israel than from any other party. ‘ The advert also boasted that the Terrorism Act of 2000 – for which LFI actively lobbied – “proscribes terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” all being enemies of Israel rather than of the UK.

GORDON BROWN.

He told a recent gathering.’ I have been proud to be a member of Labour Friends of Israel over three decades. My father used to spend many weeks in Israel, he was the chairman of the Church of Scotland’s Israel Committee, `He went on visits to meet people twice a year for more than 20 years

One of Gordon Brown's first acts after assuming the Prime Minister's role was to accept an appointment as Patron of the Jewish National Fund founded in 1901. The Israeli government sold to this Fund the land seized from Arab refugees – and then made this land only available for Jews to settle on. It planted forests over the uprooted olive trees of former Palestinian settlements. It currently owns about 14% of Israel. Brown then announced that 2 children per UK secondary school will be funded to go to the site of the Auschwitz death camp. For this the Holocaust Educational Trust has honoured him

But it is Brown’s appointments that are the much more worrying.

He has ensured continued Jewish funding by appointing Mendelssohn of Labour Friends of Israel as his chief fundraiser for the next election.

He has appointed former British ambassador to Israel, Simon McDonald, as his chief foreign policy adviser. Israel has expressed satisfaction with the choice, saying he is "a true friend to Israel."

James Purnell, the chairman of Labour Friends of Israel from 2002 to 2004, is now secretary of state for culture media and sport, giving him oversight over the British Broadcasting Corporation and the rest of the British media. In a letter published in Prospect in December 2004, Purell said: ‘Some people are trying to turn Israel into a global villain, the new pariah regime to take the place of apartheid-era South Africa … ‘When some people talk as if Israel is entirely to blame, I ask why. The only answer I can find is that there is something deep in our cultural memory that makes us disposed to blame Jews.’

Gordon Brown gave Jim Murphy, Chairman of Labour Friends of Israel from 2000-02, the position of Minister of State for Europe with responsibility for the BBC World Service and the British Council.Most worrying of all, his new Middle East Minister is Kim Howells a former chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

The Director of Labour Friends of Israel is David Mencer, a former volunteer for the Israeli Defence Force. Labour Friends of Israel now has a burgeoning membership in the Commons and is seen as a certain ladder for success by aspiring politicians. Receptions hosted by the lobby usually boast a huge turnout, with such guests as Gordon Brown, the Israeli ambassador and the Israeli Deputy Minister of Defence. At Labour party conference the prime minister attends the LFI meeting, and so do a good number of cabinet members. Such high-level attendance is rare for a fringe meetingThe Labour Party’s policy-defining Smith Institute is now very much under the influence of the Israeli lobby. Its chairman is Lord Haskel who is also a member of the Parliamentary Executive of the Labour Friends of Israel. The Smith Institute's board includes Baroness Meta Ramsay, a longtime MI-6 intelligence officer who is House of Lords chairman of Labour Friends of Israel,

And Tony Blair is of course now the Quartet's Envoy to the Middle East.

As for the TORIES

The political director of Conservative Friends of Israel claims that with over 2,000 members and registered supporters alongside 80 percent of the Conservative MPs, and that they are now the largest affiliated group in the party. They run six deputations to Israel a year – paid for by the organisation. They engage in intensive lobbying – including briefing notes to Brown, They maintain constant contact with the Israeli embassy. Their website is stridently anti Hezbollah and they maintain a careful vetting of all new Parliamentary candidates.

‘Within the Conservative Party, we actively support candidates, especially in marginal constituencies. Our programme for prospective parliamentary candidates provides weekly briefings, events with speakers, and a chance to participate in delegations to Israel. Ourmembers give financial support and campaigning help where it matters.’ Robert Halfon is Political Director of Conservative Friends of Israel and has been fast tracked to re-stand in Harlow at the next election.

Rt Hon David Cameron MP, Leader of the Conservative Party has stated“I am proud not just to be a Conservative, but a Conservative Friend of Israel; and I am proud of the key role CFI plays within our Party.”His recent tour of Israel began with a two hour Black Hawk helicopter flight with the Israeli defence minister to see the country's bordersDr Liam Fox MP, Shadow Defence Secretary has stated.Israel’s enemies are our enemies and this is a battle in which we all stand together or we will all fall divided.”

AND WE CANNOT FORGET THE EU.

Benita Ferrero Waldner, the EU's external relations commissioner, has indicated that she is keener to foster closer ties with Israel than with almost any other country in the Mediterranean region.As well as remarking that Israel is "closer to the European Union than ever before," she said that a "reflection group" is studying how relations between the two sides can be upgraded to a "truly special status." Whereas formal bodies have been set up to deal with human rights questions in Morocco and Jordan, only an informal "working group" addresses such issues in the case of Israel.The Palestinian people have paid a very high price for the rise of New Labour – and it is surely past time to reverse this.